Half to thomas f



(No Mbdel.)

E. S. VANCE.

ENVELOPE. 7 No. 534,458. Patented Feb. 19,1895.

I 173513161 Elairaibf mum.

Wiiqzsses Emzwfi a I I N TED STATES PATENT OFFI E.

ELDRED SHERRELL VANCE, OF OHO, TENNESSEE, ASSIGNOR OF ONE- HALF TO THOMAS. F. MCOLELLAN, OF SAME PLACE.

ENVELOPE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 534,458, dated February -19, 1895. Application filed February 23, 1294. semi to. 501,204. (No man.)

i To 'aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ELDRED SHERRELL VANCE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Donoho, in the county of Smith and State of Tennessee, have invented a new and useful Envelope, of which the following isa specification.

My invention relates to an envelope designed for use in the mail and'express services, and the objects in View are to provide an improved form of envelope to open which it is necessary to. destroy the same, whereby the fraudulent opening ofthe envelope in transit is prevented;.and furthermore, to provide an envelope of cheap and simple construction wherein the minimum amount of material is used toaccomplish the ends of my invention.

Further objects andadvantages of the ill-.

ventionwill appear in the following description, and the novel features thereof will be particularly pointed out in the appended claim. I 1 V K In the dra wings:Figure l is a view of the blank from which the improved envelope 'is formed.v Fig. 2 is a view of the completed envelope. Fig. 3 is a section on the linew w of Fig. 2. I Fig. 4 is a perspective .view show: ing the blank partly folded. Fig. 5 is a section on the line yy of Fig. 2.

Similar letters of reference indicate corrc sponding part-sin all the figures ofthe drawings.

The blank com prises abody portion a, an upper flapor wing b, an opposite lower flap or wing d, and opposite lateral flaps or wings.

c and e. The lateral flaps cand e are of'different'lengths, the former being of a length corresponding approximately with that of the main or body portion of the blank,'whi1e the flap or wing e is shorter than 0, whereby when folded upon the main or body portion it terminates short of the inner end of the fi-ap c, to avoid forming a bunch or enlargement ad jacent to the inner end of the flap c.

or body portion, are arranged below the folding line of the upper flap b. The upper flap Fur- .thermore, the upper edges of the flaps' oan'd b is semi-elliptical in contour and is of a depthslightly less than one-half the vertical whereby when folded to cover the lower edge of the flap b a portion of the surface of the flap b will be exposed, as shown in Fig. 2.

I The flap e is provided with adhesive material, or is'gummed, on its outer surface contig uous to its free edge as shown at f,.the shaded portion indicating the surface gummed. Said flap e is also gummed for a short. distance v upon its outer surface contiguous to its inner I end, and parallel with its lower edge, asshown .atf. This flap e, in the process of manufacture, is first folded upon the line indicated bydots, upon the inner surface of the main or body portion a, as shown in Fig. 4,

thus exposing the gummed portions of its surface,;-as indicated at f and f, and subse qnently the opposite lateral flap c is folded upon the inner surface of said main or body portion to lie incontact with the cxposedsur- 8o its outer edge upon its inner surface, as indicated at g, and after the folding'of the flap c it isconnected to the flap e by means of the 'gu'mmed surfaces g andf. The flap c, having been properly secured to the flap 6, the upper flap b is folded downwardly to cover the upper edges of the lateral flaps, and said flap b is gummed at its outer curved edge, as shown at t', to adhere to the outer surface of 0 the longerflap c. This completes the initial preparation vvof the envelope, the fastening of the lower or closing flap (1 being left for the use'rto accomplish, and if preferred the flap b may be left open, also. The flap b is gummed 5 at its outer edge and upon its outer surface p as shown at 7s,-in Fig. 2, the gummed surface being shown in dotted-lines, and the flap d is gum'med at its lateral edges and upon its in-- Her surface as shown'at h and h, and in ad- I00 dition to this the outer surface, of the flap 0,

at its lower edge, and therefore contiguous to the folding line of the closing flap, is gummed as shown at 9'. Thus when the closing flap is folded upon the exposed surface of the flaps Z) and c, it is secured by the adhesive material at all four edges,namely, at its outer concaved edge by the gurnmed surface 75, at its,

lateral edges to the outer surface of thefiap c by the gummed surfaces It, 7L, and atits inner edge, at the point of contact with the flaps c, and e, by the gummed surfaces g and f.

It will be obvious that with this arrangement and manner of securing the coveror closing flap of the receptacle the difficulty of opening the envelope Without marring or destroying the same is increased to the maximum, inasmuch as four gummed edges must be released before access can be had to the interior; but in order to still furthcrincrease this difficulty it is preferred to place the address upon the surface of the flap d, and the postage stamp, it placed at the upper right hand corner, as usual in mailing, willadhere to the exposed surfaces of both the closing flap d and the upper flap 1), thus serving as a seal. It will be seen furthermore, that the construction of the blank is compact, and that it maybe struck from the material without extensive waste, this being a desideratum in the manufacture of envelopes for the reason that the cost is thereby materially reduced. Furthermore, the contour of the blank is approximately regular, the only departures from straight lines being the convexed outer edge of the flap b, and the concaved edges of the flaps c, d, and e, the concavi ng of the lateral flaps being only sufiicientto permit the accurate folding of the flap b,and the concaving of the outer edge of the flap d being sufficient, merely, to expose a portion outer surface of the flap 1).

Having thus described my invention, I claim The herein described mail and express en- 'velope having a-blank comprising a rectangular body portion a, lateral integral flaps c and e, the flap e being of less length than the flap c, and said flaps c and a being gummed of the respectively upon their inner and outer surfaces as shown at g and f, whereby when the lateral flaps are folded parallel with the in: ner surfaces of the main or body portion they may be secured together by means of said gummed surfaces, an upper semi-elliptical flap b adapted to fold over the upper edges of the lateral flaps and provided with a gummed inner surface 7 to adhere thereto and a lower or closing flap d of 'awidth approximately equal to the main or body portion, and cutaway at its-free edge to expose a portion of the surface of the flap b, said-flap clbeing ELDRED SHERRELL VANCE.

Witnesses:

W. B. CANTER, E. E. KEMP. 

